The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives

by Dashka Slater

That was the thing about restorative justice. It allowed you to hold two things in your head at the same time—that butt-slapping was funny, and also that it wasn’t. That asking permission to touch somebody was funny, but that you really didn’t want to be touched by somebody who didn’t ask. That the girls wanted Jeff to dial back the ass-smacking thing, but that they still liked joking around with him. That the whole thing wasn’t a big deal, and that it kind of was. That was what community was. All those layers of understanding.